Mobileer.Me

Mobile phones started out as car phones, and before the technology was available to enable pocketable devices with good reception and decent battery time, there was some "hybrid" devices out there. One was the Benefon Class 450 Ultra which was available for the NMT 450 network, before the NMT 900 and GSM 900 networks had full coverage. This Benefon was a car phone with a detachable handset that was capable of working like a cordless phone up to 500m (1640ft) from your vehicle.



Due to the very rapid development of the above mentioned 900 networks and shrinking handsets for those networks, this type of phone did not have a very long lifespan. So short that it was not an easy task to even locate any information on it online.

So why do I bring up this topic? Well because the mobile phones or/and gadgets have actually stopped shrinking some time ago and actually have started to grow into 5-7" tablet type devices (ie. Dell Streak & Samsung Galaxy Tab). So far a couple of companies that have understood that these phones or/and tablets now are of a size where we might want/need a remote for them, these are Sony LiveView™ and a concept from Fossil.




I am wondering if this could be part of our future? A device that is small enough to fit in our pocket or/and bag but large enough where we don't want to pull it out for each interaction we want to have with it, coupled with a wearable remote that also has some sort of of keyboard like input?

When I started thinking about this the Benefon mention at the beginning came to mind, how it was an extension of the car phone of the time, and how we are at the point soon where we might need smaller extension of our phones. What do you think?

Let's first talk about why I did get the Samsung Galaxy Tab. I have for the past year and a half been very pleased with the Dell Mini 9 with the alternative OSX on it, however just recently replaced it with the MBA 11". The only shortcomings I encountered with the Dell was that the Atom processor just couldn't handle certain tasks (that well) so t became a habit to do maybe only maybe 75% of what it was capable of. So despite it's upgraded RAM of 2Gb and 32Gb Runcore SSD it got limited "real computing" use aside from when on trips. Also the fact that the MBA was significantly wider it triggered the want for something lightweight for around home and on the go, basically a Netbook replacer. Being the iOS user for the past few years the Galaxy Tab had a number of appealing features such as capacitive touchscreen. It must be pointed out that while I have had a number of various gadgets over the past few years I never owned an Android device. I have tested, played with some in stores and borrowed a couple but never actually owned one so my Android know-how was near zero.

I purchased my Galaxy Tab at full price ($599.99) on Amazon that enabled me to not have any additional fees such as sales tax, activation fees nor even shipping charges (for second day delivery) I point this out as it was a very pleasant experience. Not to mention the part that they gave me credit so I was able to acquire it without any funds "out of pocket".

I bought it this way also to be able to change my mind sooner rather than later even if I would decide to keep it I knew that two years (contract time if bought that way at $399.99) is a long time especially in the emerging tablet market as well as I wasn't even sure if I would be using the 3G feature on it even if I kept it as I would've have the tethering possibility.

So to the point(s) as to what made me decide to not keep it. I must say that it was among the hardest decisions I've ever done on a gadget any time recently, more on this a bit later.

Having read, viewed pictures and watched videos including live reviews :) online nothing surprised me when I got the device. I had however learned that not only is TMoUSA the cheapest alternative for monthly 3G service but it appears that the Tab on other NA carriers lack the built-in 16Gb user accessible memory and only has the MicroSD, whereas the TMoUSA versions have both internal 16Gb and the MicroSD slot ready for your card. So if you're in NA the best valued HW version is the TMo one. Interestingly TMo has chosen to preinstall the SIM card into the device and enable a web page where you can right there and then enable prepaid 3G with a CC.



One of the few things I to some extent had some forehand experience with was Gmail, while I love Gmail and value how it for instance is so much better than iOS' native mail app it could be more elaborate for the tablet than the standard mobile edition this will surely come in the near future. Samsung as tried to address this with their own mail app version but unfortunately not lived up to Gmail's mobile edition when it comes to capabilities, so you end up with a nicer UI on the tablet format but with even less possibilities. As emails is the core of my business this was a serious let down for me personally, on this topic I also am somewhat puzzled by the lack of any (aside from K9) serious email clients on the Android platform (market) I'd be very delighted to learn I am mistaken on this.

Then the next annoying thing is the mobile vs desktop rendering of websites. The native browser, that is not a native Android browser but another Samsung custom job, will render most websites in the mobile format (when there is such a version) and while in some cases you can click on the normal website option on that website it not only doesn't stay that way for the next time it also won't affect any other websites you might visit in the same browsing. Now there are a number of alternative browsers on the market of which I used Dolphin and SkyFire both having their pros and cons, but even with these browsers that have the "desktop" option under settings it isn't that black and white, you still might at times still end up with the mobile version one place this seemed to be very true for was eBay. Sometimes no matter what I'd get the mobile version. While this is only a minor thing on a mobile phone where you are many times better off with the mobile version, unless you're looking for a setting/feature not visible in the mobile edition, on the tablet the whole idea of the larger screen becomes somewhat pointless.

Another thing that really annoys me is that whenever you click to zoom in on a paragraph of text in either an am ebook reader a PDF or on a website, it doesn't always zoom that paragraph from "edge to edge" of the screen, or when/if it does an associated picture might not be in the zoomed screen.

On the keyboard I had seen a number of Tab owners indicate that they could thumb board ok in portrait mode but not so much in landscape, as I anticipated this was not an issue for me, as I've even found myself thumbing on my Dell Mini 9 plenty of times. What did bother me though is related to this that is the keyboard layout I being used to iOS OSK was having some issues with finding the right buttons for instance the spacebar felt too small and very much so when searching within the browser as it uses the same URL place for search and not a separate search window, this enables the "URL keyboard layout" with even smaller space bar, these might be things I just didn't learn the correct way of how it's done in Android. Either way was annoying for me to be typing.like.this.because.of.not.hitting.spacebar :). I did find a KB layout I liked (surprise surprise it was a iOS copy) but neither there or with the native KB layout was I able to utilize the auto-correction in a way I wanted to. I am not fond of how the word suggestions pop up above the keyboard I find it very annoying. Even my now old Sidekick LX09 corrects common typos I do and I can move on being lazy in not correcting anything. So I ended up using the Tab without correction, which made me watch better how I type :). I am pretty sure there would be a correction feature (read: app) out there that would do exactly what I want and how I want it but I have to say I was getting tired of all the searching for an app to resolve this and that which I have gotten used to is part of the OS, almost reminds me of Windows Mobile which ended up being an acceptable platform after you had added some essential UI and other solutions. On that subject even searching the Android market was frustrating to me as some of the "apps" on there are just fake stuff put there for whatever alternative agenda.

So while I deeply respect Android and recommend it to many of those I know, it has characteristics I have a hard time accepting, it just feels likes there's no central way of doing things and that rather than having the option of adding whatever apps it becomes a necessity in order to get the device working with the features you want.

The only thing on the HW that was a bit annoying was the lack of any physical button like a home button this is especially annoying when you want to turn the screen on when the only option you have is pushing the power button and then unlocking the screen.

Aside from having my wifi router not being found twice after the Tab had been sitting for a while and some awkward loss of wifi signal what appeared to have been BT headset related the wifi worked just fine with my Airport Extreme. I would assess it to work slightly better than my iPhone4 outdoors and just a tad less powerful indoors than my iP4.

There's a few things that I think very much shows that Android isn't completely ready to be on a tablet. A couple of things I had happen to me was while in Gmail (desktop version) I was able to click return but not start to type until I chose a text only layout. The other thing is while being able to watch any flash content within the browser is nice, if you do chose to do so without opening say the YouTube app you will find it very hard to get the buttons to register such as play/pause & volume, so you will be better off opening it in the video app whereby the flash capability as such becomes somewhat irrelevant.

During the time in used the Galaxy Tab I had it lock up on me twice and had Skype open up to a completely black screen three times, killing the app and restarting it resolved that, while a complete restart of the device was needed when it locked up on me.

As a conclusion I would say I was ready to accept a few lacks here and there kind of like most of us did with the very first generation of netbooks, but with the HW really lacking next to nothing I think my expectations for the OS were only even higher. The price yes the $600 (which should be about the lowest out the door buying it outright out the door you can find currently) does make a difference if it was $200 even without any 3G I would still have it, but right now it doesn't live up to it's price tag for me personally. I am convinced that anyone perfectly content with Android but wanting a tablet that's portable will love this device, for anyone coming from an iOS environment I would say get more familiar with Android before you get the Tab or you might not be too pleased.

It's a great piece of tablet that is welcomed to show the competition (whoever they are! :)) what 7" can do! I love 7" tablet sizes although even it can get on the heavier side after 2-3 hrs of straight usage :)

When it comes to emails, one of the features I learned early on to appreciate is to not give out your "core" email address to everyone you come across. Yet at the same time you need to share your email address in order to be able to keep in contact with people, that's the whole point of having an email address, right?

So just as some people have a P.O. Box or/and others use call forwarding from one mobile number to another to retain their privacy yet be "accessible" to individuals they might not know so well, there are plenty of reasons someone might want to do the same with emails, one such serious security reason would be SPAM! Another common reason would be the need or want to be able to use one inbox for both personal and business emails yet reply to them as you were doing so from different accounts.

For the past decade or so I have been using email forwarding, that means I would have an email address that I give out to people and when they email me it would automatically and instantly be forwarded to my mobile device(s) and to a number of other email addresses (different servers out there), and when I would reply to these emails it would look like the email was coming from that very email address this was done in a very straight forward fashion in Windows based Outlook like this, and fortunately for me the Danger powered Tmobile Sidekick devices always was able to do this with up to four separate email accounts.

Now with the growing popularity of Android devices and thereby Gmail being the core email system for these devices, I started looking into the possibilities to do this with Gmail, and yes indeed Gmail has no problem allowing you to do this, there is very nice instructions in the Gmail help and support section for how to setup the alternative or custom FROM email address here and once you have that setup you would most likely also want to add the same custom email address to the reply-to part as shown here. The reply-to part is what tells what address the receivers email client will put in the "to" section when he/she clicks the reply button to reply to your message. Now while it will not be visible on the mobile versions of Gmail once you have this setup with custom email address(es) and confirmed them, Gmail will automatically insert the "reply-to" but make sure you have the "Reply from the same address the message was sent to" marked below your custom email address(es).

Word of caution, while these features can be very beneficial for reasons mentioned above, these features are also utilized by preying individuals out there that might be out to use Phishing to get your personal information. So due to this sometimes using this feature might end up with the result that your email might be marked as spam by the receiver but this is generally speaking not too common. Also understanding how these things work or can be made to work, helps one to understand why it is always important to keep one eye on if the reply-to email address is the same as your email inbox shows the email as having come from.

I know this became a bit long on a very simple thing, but hopefully someone will find this useful.

I will go with thumbboard it seems that is used but Wikipedia too. There are more types and styles of these than there are names for them.

I have been using this form of typing since 1998 when Nokia released their 9110 Communicator and have got very accustomed to it, I actually prefer it to so called regular keyboards now.

So what am I looking to say about these keyboard types? Well it has bothered me for the longest time that they have got such a poor reputation by many. This however in my opinion is because the vast majority of gadgets out there that use thumbboards have a very poorly designed thumbboard. So what is a poorly, or rather what is a good design for a thumbboard? Well I will cover here what my decade of using thumbboards have led me to believe a great thumbboard should have.

First off it is my firm belief that a good thumbboard needs to have at least five rows of keys. The sad fact is that many have as little as three rows, and I'd believe it is safe to say that the majority at this point have no more than four rows. Why is this important? Well for the simple fact that you will need to press a combination of keys to get various symbols and numbers a lot more when you have less rows of keys. The more dedicated keys you have the better it is to use, this will mean more rows. If you are on a desktop, laptop or even netbook when reading this, just take a look at your keyboard and count the rows from top to bottom. Without the F or other special keys you most likely come to five. This then ties into the next subject, space. Many will claim that if you want that many rows it will take too much space. Not necessarily.

Secondly space for the keys. It is a common misconception that the keys on a thumbboard have to be relatively big in order to be better. Many even use this in their sales pitch. But is this true? Do the keys on a thumbboard need to be big? Let's look a bit closer at this. Some time ago Apple came out with a new designed keyboard, it used relatively low flat and what seemed to be a lot of space between the keys. Since then others have followed. Now was this something very radically new? Not really if you have a "traditional keyboard" close by, look closely at it. The keys are yes next to each other or just about "touching" on a traditional keyboard, but if you look at the top surface of the keys (the are your fingertips actually touch) you might notice that they are not as close to each other after all. Most keys on traditional keyboards have a certain amount of pyramidal design to them. So why this elaborate explanation about keys? In a similar fashion you do not need large keys on a thumbboard, nor do they have to be "side-to-side" in fact it is better if they are not. It is surprising how well one can type on pretty small keys, if they have decent spacing and not all to sharp top. The spacing gives better ability to learn where the keys are and being able to find them without actually looking at the keys, as you start to orientate by touch.

Thirdly layout, the keys should be in a similar fashion as they would on a regular Qwerty keyboard since while not typing with the same fingers it is easier and thereby faster when you don't have to learn new locations for the symbol you need.

Fourthly soft or hard? Both have their pros and cons. With most softer keys they tend to wear out in some form or fashion, while being easy on the thumbs. The harder keys while having a better longevity tend to take a toll on your thumbs.

Last but not least this kind of ties into maybe both layout and spacing, the overall width of the thumbboard should be wide enough to not be cramped. Personally I find all of the bar style smart phones with Qwerty thumbboards to be too narrow. At the same time they should not be too wide, the Nokia Communicators mentioned at the beginning are on the borderline of too wide for me personally. Personally I have not yet found any thumbboard that I feel as comfortable typing on as the Danger Hiptop / T-Mobile Sidekick.

With a good thumbboard and being interactive and multitasking one can become pretty efficient and comfortable on these types of keyboards. While I do also use an iPhone as a second device and do occasional tying inputs on the onscreen keyboard, I consider that as a two hand-two eyes procedure. Whereas on the Sidekicks I have got to the point where most of my input can be done without looking, including with one hand/thumb at times when the occasion requires that.